So This Is Fall?? Must Be Homecoming!

By de anne

I’m Confused! It was 91F at noon last week…but the calendar read October 08! We were 23 days away from Halloween and I’m swimming in our pool and turning on the A/C!

I started hanging up the scary decorations and putting the artificial cobwebs all over the porch. I tried to drink my pumpkin latte as the sun set, but I was sweating from the heat. This most certainly did not feel like Fall. What woke me up from my Indian Summer was Homecoming, this weekend!

Homecoming wasn’t something I was very familiar with. When I went to high school, back in the 70’s, we had specific groups and roles that went with them. The” geeks” (always through time there will be geeks) hung out together in Math clubs and chess clubs. The “druggies” were stoned most of high school and only hung out with each other. The “rockers” were the musicians who played hard rock and most were in bands and rarely did anything but play music. (They also like herbs). Lastly there was the “jocks” who lived and breathed sports and in my tiny rural town on Long Island, that meant Football and Wrestling! Who did I associate with? Well, I was always an “in-betweener”, meaning that I had a confusing teen hood!

I loved music, played percussion and guitar and spent hours at a time, writing those Taylor Swift teen against the world songs, long before Taylor Swift was ever a thought in her mother’s head. I also was a huge “nerd”, not a “geek” and I guess I forgot to mention that group. They were the kids who got good grades, always did their homework, and read books, a lot. That was a concept where ink was on actual paper that was bound and numbered and you held in your hands and devoured it like a meatball hero.

Yes, I was a nerd, who played it off as pretty cool because I hung with the musician kids. They didn’t care if my grades were good…I usually did their homework for them, at a fair price. They also didn’t care if I read, as many of them also read, about musicians mostly.

Another thing they didn’t care about, was Homecoming! It just wasn’t something of interest, unless your band was chosen to play at it…which was rare. To not offend or hurt the local bands at school, the principle always picked some band from another town and that was that. So we didn’t go! We really weren’t wanted there anyway.

Some geeks went, with each other, and then it was a geek fest. Some druggies went, but usually got kicked out for falling into the punch bowl or throwing up in the hallway.

It was basically a major event for the jocks and their groupies. The football dudes and their cheerleader girlfriends lived for this night. There was a game they played just before the Homecoming dance, and we usually won, but it didn’t matter. It was their big event to show off their huge popularity and so everyone else could stand around and wish they were them. Just a fact!

I do remember how much it meant to these high schoolers to look perfect on that night. Back then, the guys wore powder blue polyester suits and the girls spent weeks picking out those classy long length gowns with halter tops or deep backs and worked on their makeup and hair for hours. Not my thing. My attire consisted of Levi jeans, V-neck white tee shirt, Flannel shirt (usually red plaid), beige construction boots and an attitude. Not Homecoming fare at all!

So, I know little about the whole ordeal. My oldest girl at home, wasn’t interested in this and hung out with her boyfriend, and my two older children never had an interest either. But this time around, very different. My son (son #2) is interested and it’s no surprise. He’s a jock!

I never thought I’d utter those words! He does fairly well in school, at one time was really into music, (played a few instruments and well) and is on the football team! Uh Huh!

Mandatory attendance….but he really WANTS to go! He’s all excited about what he decided he wants to wear, colors and all, even the shoes. He’s going with a group of his “football brothers” and I’m sure he’ll be the hit of the night.

So, I’m getting a lesson in Homecoming 101 and school Spirit! We are going shopping tonight for the perfect outfit and shoes and I will be working overtime to pay for it!

But I’m happy for him. I’m relieved to see my child so involved in something, healthy and a big part of teen life. I sometimes wish, I had joined that group and been involved, even if just a little. I know he will remember this night and store it in his box of memories that he can take out and reminisce over.

Now, it may be 84 F on Homecoming and just possibly the girls in their pretty gowns may be sweating some and just maybe the football heroes may need to take off their jackets and roll up their sleeves a little, but I think they will probably all jump in the pool afterwards and have a BBQ. Not exactly a Homecoming tradition, set in October, the Fall, but we do live in Southern California!

Long live traditions and teenage hood and Homecoming! No matter what state and what climate you are in, Homecoming is here and so is Fall! Let’s celebrate both!

Namaste